Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Well I’m certainly feeling Christmassy now!

Yesterday was Mummy Chicks birthday, and for the first time in forever I actually got to spend it with her.

Having a December birthday can be a real pain as it’s a busy month for everyone, but this year the opportunity came up and off to Kent I went!

We spent the day at Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, so there’s certainly been a little Christmas spirit around!

I didn’t take my camera, so all I have is a few iPhone photos, but I thought I’d share them anyway as it’s a fun way to spend the day and also because I wore my Collectif jumper that I’d been saving up for a Christmas outfit and that ties in very nicely with reminding you to open todays Advent Calendar door, behind which is £50 to spend at Collectif!

So here’s me and my evil twin in our festive Winter Wonderland outfits, waiting for our first (but not last!) Mulled Wine of the day!

♥ Hair Flower – Betsy Hatter ♥ Fur Collar Jumper – Collectif *♥
♥Coat – Heyday! *♥ Boots – Hush Puppies ♥

Winter Wonderland would have been a great place to take my proper camera and take proper photos and show off the amazing jumper with its little pearl buttons, that beautiful Heyday! coat and those gorgeous Hush Puppies that I bought at TK Maxx, but, well, I was having a day off, so I didn’t!

I did eat bratwurst with sauerkraut and fried potatoes and drink plenty of mulled wine. I also got ID’d buying Egg Nog, which made me very happy and I thought I ought to let everyone know that happened. The lady behind the counter made a small squeaking noise when I showed her my passport and she realised I was not only in my 30s, but already on my way to heading out the other side. To be fair I was wearing sunglasses at the time and the sunlight was very bright, so that probably hid the worst of it the ravages of the years, but still, in my head I am taking this as evidence of my eternal youth, regardless of the evidence of the mirror before I put my make up on.

Winter Wonderland is essentially a large Christmas Market and fun fair all in one place. There is an ice skating rink, which I would have had a go on if it hadn’t been for the mulled wine. Some big rides, which I did have a go on, well, one of them anyway, a sky swing, and lots of wooden huts selling ornaments, wooly hats, food and drink.

There was also a bar on a carousel. If you’re short of money and want to get drunk fast then I recommend this bar!

The other thing we did while we there, apart from drink Mulled Wine, eat sausages and go on rides, is take a trip around the Ice Kingdom. I have to say I actually expected it to be made OUT of ice, but it wasn’t, it was a big, very cold, room with some really amazing ice sculptures.

There was also a bar half way round where you could stop and buy shots of something to warm you up (we totally did that), some ice thrones you could get your photo taken on (totally did that too but my sister has the photo so you can’t see it!) and an ice mirror that you could pretend to be trapped in (tick! Actually have a photo of that one!)

And that was Winter Wonderland! In order that I can pretend this post is useful, here’s a few tips if you wanted to go to Winter Wonderland this year.
1 – Get off at Green Park tube. It’s a fairly short walk across the park and way quieter than Hyde Park Corner. Also we saw squirrels on the walk, which was extra bonus fun.

2 – Winter Wonderland is free. You only have to pay if you want to go on rides or go to any of the special features like the Ice Kingdom or the Circus. So if you’re a bit skint, save up a fiver and go and drink some Mulled Wine in a wooden shed!

3 – Go during the day on a weekday if you can! You can see it all lit up as it starts getting dark at 4pm, but after 5pm there were A LOT of people coming into the park and it gets very busy. I imagine weekends are a total crush.

There, I consider myself useful now!

And today I am off to Birmingham to do it all again at the awesome Birmingham Christmas markets. There’s no stopping me once I get a bit of Christmas spirit!

I’m going to leave you with 2 things I think you should really be aware of that I won’t otherwise get chance to post about before Christmas!

One of them is Christmas Bedding. Christmas Pin Up Bedding. Pin Up Christmas Bedding that is now half price.

Yes, I bought this a few weeks ago for full price, and before I even had chance to put it on my bed you can now buy the King Size set for just £7. It’s awesome though, you should buy it and take advantage of my sale missing misfortune.

The other thing is that you can get PHOTOS PRINTED ON MARSHMALLOW!

An old friend of mine contacted me about this back at the end of November and sent me a box to see. I stuck Norwich Cocktail week photos on it, but what a fabulous Christmas present this would be for a friend if it had photos of you together on it?!

They’re £9.99 a box, but if you enter the code thankfoo at the checkout you get 25% off, and there’s still time to order before Christmas as last posting is this Saturday!